For months we've had a dearth of certain items in one of the pantries or out in the garage on the shelves or the one cabinet that we use to store excess canned goods and other food products. You get to the point that you feel you will always have certain things without end. I mean, we have more soups, vegetables, canned meats, sauces, pastas, etc. than you can believe. Certainly more than the average family. You would think the Beast thought we might starve to death if we didn't have all these things....just in case.
I mentioned last night that I thought I would make us some tuna ala king for dinner today but I knew we were short on eggs. That was the one item I was certain we didn't have. It never occurred to me to check and see if I had all the other ingredients. Of course we did! Then, while the Beast was at the eye doctor, I went to get the mushroom soup, peas, tuna and mushrooms (in the jar) together so that it would be handy this afternoon.
I was in total shock to discover that we had NO mushroom soup and no cans of tuna anywhere. Impossible. I double checked. Nope. I even triple checked, thinking that the Beast might have moved them to different areas. I scanned every shelf carefully. The last thing I wanted was for the Beast to come home and just walk over to an area and be able to say, *Here they are!*
I knew he planned on stopping at Lowe's on his way home and that is just a couple blocks away from Walmart. So I called him and he was still at Lowe's. *Phew!* When I told him that we didn't have the soup or the tuna, he was in disbelief. He asked me if I was sure. I told him I had triple checked everywhere but, although we had cans of salmon and all kinds of other soups, we didn't have the ones I needed. I had already boiled and iced the eggs (icing them makes the shells easier to peel off) and had found some canned peas. So he said, *Well, then it's mushroom soup and some tuna that we need. I'll stop on my way home.* I added some corn starch to the list that he needed to pick up and knew that three items wasn't going to be hard for him to remember.
Later, when he got home from the stores, he started bringing in bag after bag of things he had gotten when he went to Walmart. (Of course. He can't go in there without buying out the store!) I knew I should have gone myself but, oh well! So he buys six cans of the *Heart Healthy* mushroom soup and my heart fell. If you've even had some of those, they just don't taste as good as the original. I don't really know what they leave out except for salt but I have always found them to be on the bland side.
He also bought about 16 cans of tuna (I kid you not!) plus a load of other items we really didn't need but he wanted to have plenty....in case. Most of the meat items, however, were welcome and he put those out in the freezer for future use. We will use them within the next week or so. And he bought us more of those *Skillet dinners* that you just add ground beef or cut up chicken. When I put those away, I made him go look and see how many we had before what he added today. We have about 15 of those if you don't count the Hamburger Helper ones. I just shook my head. I can make most of those from scratch but he can't so he likes to have them handy. He just really thought we were out of them. I told him that HE had put them where they were and he should have remembered.
Anyway, I finally had all my ingredients together and, by the time he got home, it was almost four o'clock so I started making it. After getting it all together, I tasted it and discovered that it WAS a bit bland but I knew what it needed. A bit of beef broth mix and it was perfect. How does cheating on the beef base make it more *heart healthy*? Honestly.
So we ate that for our dinner and it really hit the spot. It's been months since I last made it and I even used two of the eggs from our hens in it. I almost hated to boil them but I put on my big girl panties and added them to the pan when I had boiled the eggs. I figured that was the reason we had the hens so.....
I saved the carton from the 18 count eggs that we last used and the shells from the eggs. We can use the carton to store the eggs from the girls and we will crush up the shells and feed them to the girls to increase their calcium. Everyone with experience keeps telling us to do it so what the heck! It can't hurt.
So now we are set for a while as far as tuna goes. I hate to mention to the Beast that I used the last of the peas and the last jar of mushrooms. Who knows what he would end up buying us?
Time to hit the sack. Love you all. Signing off from the Bratfarm for the night. Be good. Be happy. Be careful in all these storms. ***Hugs***
PS: We had a high of 86 today and it was gorgeous but two great days in a row are all we are going to get from the way the weatherman predicts. The eastern storm front is heading our way and so are lower temperatures and rain. Oh well!
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